How much should Aston Villa fans care about Monchi’s boyhood club during the transfer window? | OneFootball

Aston Villa’s president of football operations has thrown his weight behind a rescue operation for his boyhood club.

Monchi has been in Andalusia to support protests against the potential liquidation of San Fernando CD after they were relegated to the Spanish third tier in 2024/25 and joined the town’s mayor in calling for the club’s ownership group to sell to one of the parties interested in taking over.

Ordinarily the biggest question marks would be over whether those buyers are viable and trustworthy, but Monchi’s involvement has inevitably caught the attention of Aston Villa supporters. In terms of perception, the timing couldn’t have been much worse.

“I’ve been in professional football for 37 years, since I left as a young lad from my hometown team, back then CD San Fernando. I’ve been fortunate to experience wonderful and unrepeatable moments with my Sevilla FC, above all, winning the unimaginable,” said Monchi in a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter.

“I also enjoyed them with Roma, and now I’m living and savouring them with Aston Villa. What I experienced today in my city, San Fernando, La Isla de León, without being any title or European qualification, I place in a privileged spot among my memories.

“Today, a city has shown that football is a feeling so deep that it surpasses many barriers. Today, a city without the spotlight of mega-professional football, but through love and identification with its colours, has reclaimed the value and pride of grassroots football.”

Monchi went on to call for Spain’s football authorities to take action to protect San Fernando and their other clubs – a responsibility we can all recognise in England thanks to football’s catalogue of club catastrophes, some of the most recent involving the likes of Bury, Scunthorpe United and Torquay United to name just a few near the top of the English football pyramid.

REUTERS/Sergio Perez

But nobody is questioning the morality of Monchi’s intervention. It is quite obviously a positive pursuit on the part of a man who feels he too has some responsibility to the game and the club through which he first experienced it.

What some Villa supporters are more sceptical about is whether it’s appropriate for our club’s recruitment chief to attach his name so robustly to another club at this very specific time in the football calendar.

A quiet summer in the transfer market

Villa’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) requirements meant that transfer activity was extremely minimal before the June 30th deadline. The nature of modern football is that supporters are as interested in sales as signings and Villa supporters know that Monchi’s job in July is to sell smartly, not just to buy well.

The club kept their powder bone-dry in June and minimal confirmed business has been done in either direction subsequent to the PSR deadline.

Monchi is in the spotlight as a result of that and the news that he’s lending some of his focus to San Fernando has been considered cause for complaint by some Villa supporters.

I think those supporters fall into one of a couple of categories.

First, there are those who don’t think the head of what should be one of Villa’s busiest departments at this time of year is doing himself any favours by passionately getting involved in the affairs of another club.

Second, there are those who don’t think Monchi should be doing anything at all that isn’t to do with transfers between the final whistle at Old Trafford in May and the end of the summer transfer window at the start of September.

Both groups can construct a coherent argument but I’m more inclined to believe Monchi’s extracurricular good deeds aren’t having any material effect on Villa’s summer business whatsoever.

The transfer window is a complicated time and there are myriad other reasons for Villa’s slow start. None of them necessarily mean Unai Emery won’t have the squad he needs to start the season, nor do they excuse the club’s management if they fail to provide him with it.

Ultimately, we won’t know either way for several weeks yet.

Some causes are worth fighting for

Something Villa supporters need to keep in mind is that Monchi had no control over the timing of San Fernando’s travails.

He clearly cares about their situation – as most of us would if Villa found themselves in a similar place – and I find it difficult to hold that against Monchi in any way. If the club’s other officials and owners were to feel differently, that would be up to them.

I consider it a positive that Villa have someone in so senior a position who understands football with such depth and authenticity that he’s willing to go out on a limb in this way. Others wouldn’t; Villa are better off with him in charge than we would be with them.